Reliance plans second tech unit in West Bengal

Wednesday, 12 March 2003, 20:30 IST   |    3 Comments
Printer Print Email Email
Reliance Infocomm, which is starting an ambitious IT campus here, is also planning to invest in a high-speed communications centre at the port town of Haldia.

KOLKATA: Plans are afoot to set up a broadband, high-speed communications centre to track vehicles for shippers, transporters and consignees with the global positioning system (GPS) technology. The Reliance centre is to come up within the Haldia Software Park, a 20-acre technology campus that will house other IT units as well. "The Reliance unit will come up on 4.45 acres," according to A. Subbiah, chief executive of the Haldia Development Authority. Reliance, India's biggest private sector conglomerate, has earmarked 120 million for the proposed project in Haldia. The company, however, is expected to first begin work at the 'knowledge city' project here. The technology campus is coming up on a 100-acre plot. West Bengal IT Minister Manab Mukherjee has met Reliance group vice-chairman Mukesh Ambani to discuss the details of the "Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City". The project, which envisages bringing different telecom, IT and information technology enabled services (ITES) companies within one hi-tech campus, could generate jobs for 20,000 technology professionals, official sources said. Ambani has assured Bhattacharya of setting up a 500-seat call centre, a software development centre and a telecom engineering unit within the knowledge city that will also invite long distance telephony firms, Internet service providers, fixed line telephone and wireless-in-local-loop (WLL) service providers. Reliance hopes to induct some 2,000 engineers by 2005 for its telecom unit that will be part of the Reliance Infocomm venture. The company is also building a branch of its Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communications Technology here. The main institute has opened in Ahmedabad. The state government has also earmarked land for the institute on the city's eastern fringe near the airport.
Source: IANS